Cyberspace and Redefining of gender roles; The Construction of Femininity Conflicts on Kurdish Facebook

In this study, we have investigated the Conflicts of femininity on Kurdish Facebook. Historically, Kurdish women have had little opportunity to engage in political, cultural, economic or social affairs. But with the growth of communication media and the emergence of cyberspace, they have been given the opportunity to engage in in political, cultural, economic or social affairs. Although the use of Kurdish women from cyberspace has somewhat improved their political, cultural, economic or social situation, it may lead to conflicts in their gender identity and Femininity. The research method is virtual critical ethnography. The field of critical ethnography has been Kurdish Facebook. The research data is a wide range of non-structured interviews, pictures, participatory observation and non-participatory observation, field notes, Facebook comments, Facebook member's profiles, public groups on Facebook, shared videos on Kurdish women's issues on Facebook, which have been analyzed using the Constructivist grounded theory. Findings of the research show that Kurdish women on Facebook have construct of two main dimensions of femininity: Critique of patriarchal structure and praise of women's activism. Critique of patriarchal structure include of Depoliticization of Femininity, disowning feminine body and Disembedding cultural of femininity. Praise of women's activism include of Female resistance; representation as action, Sanctification of women's suffering; negativate of action and Praise for women's individualism. But in the meantime, there are several layers of conflicts of femininity that generally include representation the women's uppressedness. On Kurdish Facebook, we are seeing the representation women's oppression, and there is little attempt at interpreting the situation of women's uppressedness and providing solutions to emancipation